Guest Article: Rajasekar KS, GM, Marketing, Matrimony.com highlights the innovative marketing strategy adopted by BharatMatrimony to deepen trust with customers during the pandemic

In an effort to leverage the high digital time of our audience during Covid-19 pandemic, we at BharatMatrimony launched many initiatives including new features and services, webinars for customers, branded videos on OTT, social media marketing during IPL and product explainer videos.

Around 60 million Indian singles are looking for a life partner at any point in time and 10 to 12 million marriages take place every year. Of this, only about 8 million singles search online and that leaves a lot of scope for growth in the online matrimony category. Matrimony.com is the market leader in online matrimony with 60% of the market share. About 70% of those who register with us on BharatMatrimony and our other services are self-registered. 

As consumers worked from home during the pandemic and were glued to news and digital, we enhanced our marketing investment and optimised our TV spend. More people turned online in their search for a partner, as marriage brokers, local wedding bureaus and friends were not active during this time, we stepped up our digital and social media marketing.

Covid-19 was an opportunity for us as young professionals who worked from home found more personal time to start the search for a life partner. Those who had delayed marriage earlier due to career pursuits registered and since they were with family during the lockdown, it was easier to take conversations forward. We witnessed a 30% increase in registrations during Covid-19 on account of several measures taken in the past one year – including strengthening the leadership team, leveraging AI, analytics and enhancing the product.  

Thanks to our technology and IT teams, one week before the lockdown, we were equipped with an internally developed mobile app to seamlessly deliver full services to our customers while working out of home.

We launched a series of new services and features, in line with Matrimony.com’s focus on innovation and enhancing user experience. To help customers connect with each other and move their matchmaking conversations forward during the lockdown, BharatMatrimony launched free video calling. Seeking to help thousands of couples whose weddings have been delayed by the lockdown, BharatMatrimony launched a platform “Home Weddings”, on MatrimonyBazaar, to provide the entire range of Covid-Safe wedding services at the doorstep. Other services include:

• BharatMatrimony “Prime” – a membership service that offers 100% ID verified profiles
• “Who Can See Me” feature that gives members complete control of who can see their profile and contact them
• Unique “SecureConnect” feature which helps members receive calls from prospects without revealing their mobile number

BharatMatrimony also organised a live online webinar, ‘The Perfect Match’ where actor Madhavan in a candid conversation with Murugavel Janakiraman, Founder and CEO – Matrimony.com and moderated by Raja Ganapathy, Founding Partner Spring Capital, spoke about life, relationships and marriage. We also did a webinar with a leading relationship expert to help people ask the right questions when choosing a prospective life partner.

We turned on our social engagement besides brand integrations on OTT (Alright platform) through three videos in “Rishta Pakka Samjhe” and ‘Marrying Your Crush”. The brand was woven into the story and it saw over 6 million views across YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. 

How BharatMatrimony Rode The IPL Wave With Quirky Contextual Marketing On Social Media

During IPL, BharatMatrimony drove social engagement through cool contextual posts, by relating Cricket and Relationships. Leveraging on high consumer interest for IPL, we wooed fans with “Relationship lessons from cricket”, IPL humour” and “Cricket and relationships” besides clever creative content on interesting match moments.

Trying to build a deeper connect with the audience through topical marketing, this non-intrusive contextual marketing with relatable content served when the IPL matches struck a chord with cricket fans. IPL came after months of lockdown and we knew that people were going to be glued to the TV. Besides, the rapid pace of digital adoption and the lack of outdoor entertainment during Covid-19 offered a good opportunity for us to ride the buzz by sharing relatable content to the audience. And they seem to have loved it. As a brand, we constantly look for opportunities to spark or add to a conversation. Cricket and BharatMatrimony were a perfect match.

We achieved a reach of over 20 Million, more than 1,300 RTs and 3000+ likes and 1000+ responses during the campaign.

BharatMatrimony also undertook a social media study ‘PerfectMatch’ conducted during IPL to understand what singles look for in their Perfect Match.

The survey witnessed 1,049 responses. BharatMatrimony posed 10 “PerfectMatch” questions including “how important is respect in a relationship”, “support for each other’s career choices” & “does an encouraging partner help you do better in life.”

Apart from this we also created five product explainer videos to deepen the experience with over 5 million active members.

All this helped us do a billing of Rs 96.6 crores (growth of 18.5% QoQ and 9.7% YoY) and Matrimony.com’s Net Profit surged 31.2% YoY. We added 2.1 lakh paid subscriptions during Q2 (growth of 27.8% QoQ and 25.7% YoY).

Putting customers at the centre of what we do helped us win their hearts.